Jeni Barnett (born 24 March 1949 in London) is an English

TV presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces or hosts television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. It is common for people who garnered fam ...

Early life

Barnett grew up in

Borehamwood Borehamwood (, historically also Boreham Wood) is a town in southern Hertfordshire, England, from Charing Cross. Borehamwood has a population of 36,322, and is within the London commuter belt. The town's film and TV studios are commonly know ...

Television career

As an actress, Barnett appeared on several TV shows, including ''Revolting Women'' (

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...

, 1981) and ''Doctors''. She has also been a panellist on ITV's ''

Loose Women ''Loose Women'' (known as ''Live Talk'' from 2000 to 2001) is a British talk show that broadcasts on ITV weekdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. The show focuses on a panel of four female presenters who interview celebrities, talk about aspects of ...

'' and Five's ''

The Wright Stuff ''The Wright Stuff'' is a British television chat show which was hosted by former tabloid journalist Matthew Wright from 2000 until 2018. It aired on Channel 5 on weekday mornings from 9:15 to 11:15am. The series characterised itself as "Br ...

'', and was a long-time presenter of the children's TV series '' You and Me''. Barnett became well known after appearing on British breakfast station

TV-am TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...

as a weekend presenter. Between 2002 and 2007, she was host of

UKTV Food Good Food (formerly UK Food and UKTV Food) was a British pay television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, latterly as part of the Discovery, Inc. network of channels. The channel originally launched on 5November 2001 and ...

's flagship food show, '' Great Food Live'' (previously known as ''Good Food Live'') and its spin-offs, ''Great Food Bites'' and ''Great Food Live Extra''. In 2004/2005, Barnett also hosted the second series of the ITV cookery show, '' Too Many Cooks''. In December 2018, Barnett surprised

Gino D'Acampo Gennaro Sheffield D'Acampo (born Gennaro D'Acampo; 17 July 1976) is an Italian celebrity chef, television personality, and writer. Based in the United Kingdom, he is best known for his food-focused television shows and cookbooks. Since 2009, D' ...

as a guest Pizza Delivery lady in the Midnight Gameshow in the fourth series of '' Michael McIntyre's Big Show''.

Radio presenter

On 16 June 2007 Barnett presented her first radio programme on LBC 97.3, when she stood in for Chris Hawkins on Saturday afternoon. Barnett soon returned to the air filling in for more presenters, including Jim Davis' Lifestyle show. As part of a new Sunday schedule she was given a new 2-hour programme talking about food. A further change on 7 January 2008 saw Barnett move to weekday afternoons, 1 to 4pm, as part of the new weekday line up. The programme is a topical debate featuring aspects of news and views, in which the public are encouraged to call in with their views. Barnett continued to present the Sunday Food programme as well as the new weekday afternoon programme until 20 January 2008 when Bill Buckley replaced her on Sundays so she could concentrate on the weekday programme. Her weekday programme ended in September 2010. Between January 2011 and September 2013, she presented a Sunday morning show on BBC London 94.9, and occasionally stands in for Allison Ferns and Danny Pike on BBC Sussex.

2009 MMR vaccine controversy

In a show broadcast on 7 January 2009, Barnett's topics included the

MMR vaccine The MMR vaccine is a vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella (German measles), abbreviated as ''MMR''. The first dose is generally given to children around 9 months to 15 months of age, with a second dose at 15 months to 6 years of age, w ...

. The discussion attracted criticism of its accuracy and possible negative influence on public health by doctor and journalist

Ben Goldacre Ben Michael Goldacre (born 20 May 1974) is a British physician, academic and science writer. He is the first Bennett Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine and director of the Bennett Institute for Applied Data Science at the University of Oxford ...

, who described the show as "irresponsible, ill-informed, and ignorant". After the broadcast, Barnett admitted on her blog that she "did not have the facts to hand ... As a responsible broadcaster I should have been better prepared" when she discussed her claims with medical professionals who questioned her statements. Barnett's broadcast resulted in a large number complaints being made to

Ofcom The Office of Communications, commonly known as Ofcom, is the government-approved regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, internet, telecommunications and mail, postal industries of the United Kingdom. Ofcom has wide-rang ...

. Based on the inclusion of alternative viewpoints from those expressed by Barnett, namely callers that included medical professionals criticising Barnett's statements, Ofcom's final ruling was that the broadcast did not violate rules against misleading portrayals of factual matters or undue prominence to minority views and opinions on matters of political or industrial controversy.

References

External links

Jeni Barnett
(Personal website/blog) {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Jeni 1949 births Living people People from Borehamwood British radio presenters English television presenters English Jews